Practice or Wishful Thinking

by Ravemore

It seems that so many potential travelers on the occult pathways encounter two significant hurdles. I hear about it and read about it more often than I would like. Ironically they are both primarily self-fulfilling prophecies in failure if allowed to take root… but can be easily avoided with some thought and action.

How many times have you, or someone you know, began those first tentative steps in the direction of a particular path. You see the trailhead through the brambles and briars and slowly claw your way in that direction… only to give up, turn around, and begin looking elsewhere for an easier way? What does this simple allegorical paragraph really mean though? I think it boils down to this… You find a particular tradition that seems to call to you and you are drawn to it like a moth to the flame. After doing some research and asking some questions you start to see some inconsistencies that shake your faith. You get hung up on specifics. You find too many holes with missing information. You begin to doubt… and you start the search for something canned and ready to be served to you on a silver platter.

Then there is the second pitfall, which often blooms forth from the first like a foul smelling corpse flower… The nagging comments and responses from the “experts” and other “Sheeple” wandering around in stupid flocks. They remark on how their path is the correct one… and how yours is not. They point out the inconsistencies in your beliefs. They explain how the historical record does not support what you believe… or how it refutes it. They compound the doubt in you from number one, and if you have not already left the path to search for another… here is where you often will.

My recommendation is fuck both One and Two… The Gods do not care if your ritual differs slightly or drastically from what a book written by another man does. They do not care if you have a different name for them. They do not care if you fill in the gaps and holes with your own myth and stories. They do not care if the date of your Sabbat does not correspond to what an ancient text says. They do not care if the words being uttered from your mouth into the darkness praising their glory and beseeching their aid are not pulled from an ancient Book of Shadows or translated from some obscure cypher. They do not give a shit… and neither should you. Find your own way. Take of the wheat and cast away the chaff. Build your own temple. Set your own corner stone. Carve your own rough ashlar into that perfect fitting block. Turn your wishful thinking into Practice.. and thereby put your feet firmly upon the path to obtaining the eternal flame between the horns of the Goat God of the Witches.